Cain stood still in the center of the Ancient city, reading every bit of data that the Ley Line device could provide him. But nothing could have prepared him for the shock and horror of what it was telling him.
[Ley Line Capacity] 51 Percent
[Planetary Realm Change Stabilizing]
The energy that was previously being used by the spell holding the dungeons together, and keeping the vortexes active had been returned to the Ley Lines. While that would normally be a great thing, freeing so many trapped individuals, it also came with a qualitative change to the planet itself.
Formerly this world was barely in the double digits as far as the Mana Capacity of the Ley Lines went. It was enough that the most mana-dense regions of the world could produce Mythic Quality beasts and monsters, while the other regions could sustain various lower levels of development.
That was the status quo from as far back as the residents of this world could remember. Even before the spell, things had always been the same way, with more powerful monsters and supernatural powers being concentrated in certain regions. It was only after the system that they were given formal rankings and names though.
Now, the mana density of the world had shot up to nearly five times as dense as it was only a week ago, and the Ley Line monitoring device had just informed Cain of the implications.
The mana density of the entire central continent could now support monsters up to level 400, or as the ejected former dungeon residents were classified, Legendary quality. There was no dedicated timeline on how long it would take the strongest of them to reach that level of power, but without the dungeons to build their strength, Cain feared that the intelligent residents of the continent would fall behind.
There was simply too much of a disparity between the level 100 and 200 residents of the continent and a level 400 magical beast. The damage mitigation from the level difference alone would mean that almost nobody on the continent could even hurt the Legendary monsters.
He had already contacted King Aggramor, who did have at least a bit of good news for him. The demons that were already ranked with qualities, like himself, Neffie, and his officers were experiencing rapid growth in their stats and levels without even fighting, as their bodies adapted to the new mana levels.
Which was well and good for the Demons, and the Dragons, who also had many higher quality physiques among their species, but it left the humans, elves, orcs, and beastkin in a tight spot. The Demon King's studies suggested that they would have an easier time advancing in this new environment, thanks to the additional mana, but they would still need to live and fight long enough to catch up.
The Demon Capital was reportedly Hell on Earth at the moment, thanks to the number of dungeons that were in the city. The fighting was ongoing, but the level of destruction was incredible. The only saving grace was that the former Demon King managed to stabilize the Demon Dungeon before it collapsed.
Unlike most other dungeons, it was originally a separate realm, created by a spell and linked to the world for the Demon's convenience. A pocket dimension of sorts that they called their homeland. When the dungeon spell collapsed, the two versions of the realm merged together into their original form and he took the opportunity to have the senior forces of both dungeons plus the Demon Army in the real world work together to stop the realm from shattering.
The demons inside were only kept in check by the [Authority] ability of the Demon King, but Aggramor had high hopes that his father could help the dungeon resident regain their sanity through mind control, as he learned that the Darklight Host had been experimenting with.
From what Cain learned, the capital now resembled the ruins of the lower level dungeon, with almost every building destroyed to some degree, but the demons were still working together to eliminate the enemies.
The dragons had honored their age-old agreement with the Demon King and come to his aid, cleaning up much of the mess in the countryside, but they were unwilling to extend that aid to anywhere beyond his borders before returning to their nests in the mountains.
The question was what should Cain tell the Guild. 'Hey, get to level 400 asap or you all die' just didn't seem like the sort of thing a guild master should be telling his people, even if it was likely true. Plus, even if he told them to, how would they even do it? Without the dungeons resetting every day, those who wanted power were down to nonlethal training or meditation, both of which were immensely inefficient ways to gain system experience.
They could still do quests, but the experience granted was at the whim of the system, so that wasn't a variable that they could control either.
The entire structure of the system-based society seemed to be falling apart all around him, and Cain didn't know what to do about it.
Cain released the copy of his companions that he had been keeping in [Merger] with him and looked around the room for answers. The hints of panic and sadness in his eyes were clear to everyone, even if they couldn't read his thoughts.
"Ideas anyone? We can clear out the monsters easily enough, but what do we do after that? I can see here that the mana of the world will continue to create them no matter what we do. The magical beasts are a manifestation of the power of the world itself, like a defense mechanism, and one that suddenly got five times more powerful."
The companions fell into deep thought for a moment before Nemu came up with a suggestion. "We can continue sending groups, four lower levels with one higher-level transfer. If we set them simple quests, the system should help us get their level up without too much trouble. Once there are enough of them to form city defense teams we should be alright again for a while." the Felian bard suggested.
"Raid teams with the Lesser Watchers would be the best call. They have your experience bonus, don't they? If they lead the teams then we could realistically get things stabilized on the Central Continent fairly quickly." Vala added after a few moment's thought.
"That's well and good for the Central Continent, and maybe the Eastern Continent, which this display says should stabilize only a little bit higher than where it is now. But what about the south and the north? They both have awakened areas, and the Western Continent is going to be a nightmare once the Frost Giants stabilize." Moana sighs, looking at the screen.
She's the only one old enough to read everything on her own, without needing system translation or Cain's help to decipher what the runes mean.
The leviathan taps here and there on the display, bringing up the projections for the Southern Continent, showing that it will end up as mostly Spirit Beasts, with a small core of Immortal Beasts advancing from the population.
There simply aren't enough sources of Spirit or Immortal grade skills and spells to be able to deal with that. Even with the might of his personal summons, Cain would be hard-pressed to deal with more than a few Spirit Beasts at a time.
That might not be true for much longer though. He has been studying hard at his Spell Crafting, and he has learned a lot about the ways that he can boost and modify his existing abilities, plus he now has [Versatility] available to him, letting him choose an ability to boost for a fight to bring his power up to near Maximum.
His level has also been increasing on his own, adapting to the environment in the same way that Demon King Aggramor described himself and Neffie doing. It is a slow process though, and it might be a long time until he reaches level 600 to match the Mythic beings ejected from the vortexes if he only relies on the adaptation abilities of an Ancient.
That does give him an idea though. If he increases the actual quality of their bodies to match their level and class, it might be possible to trigger the same sort of advancement for others. Or maybe he could find a way to trigger a System Quest to do the same thing?
The Laughing God might like to troll the entire planet, but they didn't seem to Cain like the sort of God that would let the majority of the world die for a prank.
